MOSCOW, May 28 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev are set to discuss bilateral cooperation in the fuel and energy sector and sign four agreements on the peaceful uses of atomic energy, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said Wednesday.
“Our president will hold a short working meeting with the host of the Astana summit, Nazarbayev. [The sides] will discuss bilateral cooperation issues, in particular questions relating to the fuel and energy sector,” Ushakov said.
“Four documents in the sphere of cooperation in the peaceful uses of atomic energy, including a comprehensive program of cooperation in the nuclear energy sphere, will be signed,” he added.
According to Ushakov, the two leaders are also planning to sign a memorandum on the construction of a nuclear power station in Kazakhstan's northeastern town of Kurchatov.
“There is a memorandum related to the construction of a nuclear plant. [Sergei] Kirienko [Head of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom] is going there [Astana],” the presidential aide said.
This will be the first station built in the country following the shutdown of its BN-350 nuclear reactor in 1999.
Several years ago, Nazarbayev announced that the republic would begin to build a new nuclear power plant. The Kazakh leader recalled that his country is the world’s leading producer of uranium and possesses huge scientific resources and nuclear energy infrastructure.
In March 2011, Kirienko met with Kazakh authorities to discuss issues relating to the project, which was sketched out but later halted following the Fukushima disaster. Earlier this year, Nazarbayev ordered his government to tackle all the questions on the location, funding sources and time limits of the construction by the end of the first quarter.
Kairat K. Kadyrzhanov, head of Kazakhstan's National Nuclear Center, told RIA Novosti that Kurchatov was chosen as a construction site given long-term electricity needs.
The heads-of-state of Kazakhstan, Belarus and Russia are convening in Astana this Thursday for a summit that is expected to result in the signing of the agreement on the creation of the Eurasian Economic Union.
